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Sunny Shao
Education
PhD. Candidate, Political Science (Mass Behavior)
University of California
Riverside, CA
current - 2016
- [Dissertation] WeChat Discourse and Political Influence of Ethnic Social Media
M.S., Public Policy in Economics
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA
2015 - 2013
- Focused in Econometrics and State Governance
B.A., International Communications
Nottingham University
Nottingham, UK
2013 - 2010
- Studied communication theory and public spheres on social media platforms
Selected Positions
Researcher & Center Associate
Center for Social Innovation (UCR)
Riverside, CA
current - 2018
- Use R and Qualtrics to design survey experiments to test and evaluate census outreach messages for better allocation of fundings and resources
- Independently query, analyze, and visualize both structured and unstructured datasets (with R and python) to measure social disparity and impacts for clients’ grant application or annual reports.
- Design and deploy interactive data visualization tools using R, shiny, ArcGIS, and AWS for government agencies and organizations that help them to strategize their projects or resource allocations.
Researcher
AAPI Data
Riverside, CA
current - 2017
- Classify voter file data using surname and geography match algorithms to assign survey experiments
- Program, analyze, and visualize the largest Asian American Survey projects (2018 National Asian American Survey and 2018-2020 National Asian American Voter Survey)
- Proficient in various data manipulation, survey weight raking, visualization, and GIS analysis packages in R and Python
Summer Fellow (Survey Design)
Education Pioneer
Los Angeles, CA
2016
- Worked closely with coordinators, principals and teachers on program evaluations
- Created stratified weighted sampling surveys to evaluate programs of Camino Nuevo charter school network
- Designed protocols and methodology for future program evaluations
Data Analyst Intern
SmartAnalyst
Gurgaon, India
2012
- Interviewed thoracic oncologists in Japan and China for pharmaceutical clients, who are on phase II trials of non-small cell lung cancer drugs
- Translated three-way phone meetings between client, SmartAnalyst and Chinese thoracic oncologists
- Crowdsourced a list of thoracic oncologists through medical journals
Selected Projects
Asian American Voter Survey (Experimental Design & Name-match algorithms)
AAPI Data, APIAVote & AAAJC
N/A
2020 - 2018
Experiment on Inland Empire Census 2020 Outreach Messages by Census Tracts
Center for Social Innovation, UC Riverside
Riverside, CA
2020
National Asian American Survey
AAPI Data
N/A
2018
Selected Grants
Coulter Foundation AAPI Research GSR Grant
Counter Foundation
Riverside, CA
current - 2017
2020 Rstudio conference Diversity Scholarship
Rstudio
San Francisco, CA
2020 - 2019
UCR Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA
2017 - 2016
Selected Press
Would Prop. 16’s affirmative action ensure equality in California
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, CA
2020
Invited Talk
2020 Census and Beyond: New Tool for AAPI Census Efforts
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy
Virtual
2019
Key Patterns and Trends Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Chinese American Demographics & Political Engagement
National Conference of State Legislators
Los Angeles, CA
2018
How Perception of living experiences shape political enagement of Immigrants?
Politics of Race, Immigration, and Ethnicity Consortium
Irvine, CA
2017